Saturday, 5 March 2016

A.I. Design

General Overview

Degrees of precision in creating tactics will be limited to five discrete options on a sliding scale:

Low, Medium-Low, Medium, Medium-High, High.

Think of a slider bar widget the user can drag from low to high. Different descriptors will be used for different tactical aspects, but the meaning remains the same. For example:

Pressing

Low: Stand off the player in possession and focus on covering your own position on the pitch. Only attempt to retrieve the ball if you are your teams closest player to the ball, AND the ball is in your zone.

Medium-Low: Stick to your zone, but always press the ball if you are the closest to the ball.

Medium: Press the ball if it is in your half, and you are one of the three nearest players to the ball.

Medium-High: Press all over the pitch, if you are one of the three nearest players.

High: Always press if the ball is anywhere near to your zone.

Passing

Low: Do not release the ball until a suitable short pass candidate is found. Do not clear the ball, even when under pressure.

Medium-Low: Release the ball only as a last result if no short pass candidate appears. Clear the ball if under pressure.

Medium: Release the ball to the best candidate, short or long. Clear the ball if under pressure.

Medium-High: Look for long pass whenever possible. Pass short only as a last resort.

High: Get rid!! (just hoof it up the pitch at first opportunity)

For the sake of brevity, these five notches will be referred to as N0 - N4.

Tactical aspects are only configurable at the team level. For individual player instructions, the concept of a "role" will be used. At most, the team instructions may be configurable separately for defenders, midfielders and attackers.
For example:

Sweeper: This tactical role will cause the player to remain very deep, always the last defender for his team. He will never press the ball unless an attacker is bearing down on him and he is the last man. When he gets the ball, his actions will depend on the team instructions.

Poacher: Will never stray far from his zone. will stay as close to the opponents 6 yard box as possible. Will shoot at every opportunity. Will not chase back to defend.